


good, better, best

by theseourbodies



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Gen, Introspection, Other, Post-Movie, Selectively Mute Mitobe Rinnosuke, Too Many First Years, club manager!Kiyoshi Teppei
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-15
Updated: 2019-01-14
Packaged: 2019-10-10 12:36:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,483
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17426033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theseourbodies/pseuds/theseourbodies
Summary: Seirin-centric exploration of the team and Kuroko after the end of Last Game[alternate title: live free or dunk hard]





	1. i. a concerned teammate

**Author's Note:**

> I'm hoping that this will be an ongoing series, but I'll add chapters as they're written instead of sticking with a specific chapter goal. 
> 
> I really adore the team dynamic of the Seirin ball club, and I really wanted to explore what it would mean to them when Kagami leaves through different lenses-- especially since I think that the team would genuinely worry about Kuroko afterwards, on a personal and a team level. I hope you enjoy!

Mitobe’s worried. 

Or: Mitobe keeps going missing at weird times during the day—just before lunch, when Koganei is looking for him, and just before the final bell, also when Koganei is looking for him. Koganei never finds him in the same place, but it doesn’t take a genius (thankfully) to figure out that it’s because Mitobe’s pacing a certain route, back and forth and back again. Mitobe likes routines; when he breaks them to make new ones, there’s always a reason. The first two days that it happens, Koganei calls him away when he finds him; the third time he finds Mitobe just walking around, Koganei follows a hunch and decides to tag along. 

Thanks, says Mitobe. 

Koganei shrugs it off and grins at him. “Hey, no problem. I’m kind of worried, big guy.” 

Sorry. 

“Seriously, no problem. Now, what the heck is this all about?” 

Mitobe doesn’t answer, just keeps pacing along; when he finally stops, though, Koganei thinks he understands. They’re on the second-year hallway, in between the doors for classrooms 2-2 and 2-3; Kuroko is in class 2-3 now, but he used to be in class 1-3, just like Kagami. The rest of the second years are scattered around, but Kuroko and Kagami had been the only two of them in that class—and now it was just Kuroko, because Kagami isn’t here anymore. 

Mitobe’s worried; Koganei understands. He thinks they’re probably worried about the same thing. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

Mitobe hesitates. Maybe. 

Koganei hums. He’s a patient guy; he can wait Mitobe out. “Do you want to talk to Coach about it?” 

No, says Mitobe, with a little smile. She already knows.


	2. ii. what riko knows, hyuuga knows, too

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the first introduction of club manager!Kiyoshi, which is a headcanon any person is welcome to pry from my cold dead hands

Riko’s mood starts out bad and gets worse as practice—only their third since the start of the school year—goes on. She’s not particularly stealthy on a good day, and every single damning thought plays out on her face as Hyuuga and the rest of the team watch her. Nothing’s good enough, and nothing can be improved, and no one can convince her otherwise. The training is relatively tame, but that doesn’t make Hyuuga feel any better—it’s better when Riko channels her emotions into hard practices. It means she’s looking at the team’s potential and not just how the team in front of her is performing. Right now, she’s just watching them run through their regular interval training with nothing to say besides some minor adjustments in the form of crisp, harsh comments.

Nobody’s even puked yet, and she still made one of the first years cry. Izuki keeps shooting Hyuuga very pointed looks and refusing to pass to him; the message is clear, but Hyuuga wouldn’t be where he is today if it was that easy to bully him around on a basketball court. The gym is almost silent except for her voice; the whistle, the squeak of rubber on wood, and the pound of basketballs on the court and the backboard are just creepy ambience. A throbbing headache starts up at Hyuuga’s temples, but he’ll be damned if he interrupts Riko just because he thinks her mood is bad. That’s not how they operate, and it’s not the impression they need to be giving to the  _extremely_ impressionable first years who signed up this year. There are almost fifteen in total, and if they can’t handle Riko when she’s being honest (if brutal,) they don’t deserve to be in this club.

Luckily, their new club manager doesn’t have Hyuuga’s hang-ups about things like  _propriety_ and  _preserving the hierarchy._ When Riko calls practice and sets all of them on a cool down jog around the gym, Kiyoshi hobbles up to her with water bottles and his dumbest, most earnest smile. Hyuuga watches them out of the corner of his eye as they talk, and he sees the exact moment when whatever crap Kiyoshi’s saying starts to work. Riko’s shoulders relax; before he realizes it, Hyuuga’s shoulders do, too.  

Hyuuga can’t really blame her for feeling stressed. Minus two, the whole Winter Cup Championship team has come back; on top of that, the fifteen first years should be a blessing, more riches than a fledgling club like Seirin should be able to handle. But, of the first years, only two or three have immediate, playable skills; even Hyuuga can tell that there are barely three more that have the potential and the motivation to end up as starters. And, to add insult to that injury, absolutely none of them, not even the motivated ones with skills to speak of, seem to know what to do with Kuroko. More than a few of them had signed up to play with Kagami more than with the team as a whole—and, with a few exceptions, none of them had much interest in Kagami’s shadow at all.  

It hasn’t been encouraging, to say the least. The Seirin ball club thrives on teamwork, and all of them are hungry to prove that their success last year hadn’t just been because of their freak first year acquisitions. Winning once isn’t enough, and Hyuuga’s feeling the countdown to Interhigh like a physical thing, stones stacking up on his shoulders with every passing day. It’s the third years’ last chance to prove themselves, and the thought of not being enough of a team without Kagami has been literally keeping him up at night.

And Kagami had just been one half of the equation. Kuroko has been as loyal to the club as any of its starting members, but the plain truth was that Kuroko hadn’t been playing for the sake of the club last year; all of them had figured that out even before he had told them the truth. Now that Kuroko has succeeded (to all of their  _immense_ satisfaction,) Kuroko’s once again just a passing expert with below-average practical skill levels and freakishly little presence; but he’s also an exceptionally motivated play who loved playing basketball more than any person Hyuuga had ever met. If his new teammates couldn’t click with him, if he couldn’t spend time on the court— well, that was just one more thing that was keeping Hyuuga up at night.


	3. iii. the crap kiyoshi says

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All-dialogue, just a little experiment. Sorry if it's weird! stick with it, please!!

“They’re working hard.”

“They don’t know what working hard means, yet.”

“Hmm, that’s true. But they won’t learn if you won’t let them.”

“Teppei….”

“You can just say I’m right, you know. I’m your manager, now, you don’t have to worry about it! Here, try it: Thank you, Kiyoshi, you’re correct and I appreciate your input. You’re the VIP, Teppei!”

“Teppei is certainly a very  _something_ person.”

“Ah, careful Riko, you’ll make me blush. I might even faint on you!”

“Don’t even joke, I’ll bury you myself if you do anything to hurt yourself while you’re in that cast.”

“Are you saying you wouldn’t catch me? Ah Riko, how the first blush has faded from our time together.”

“Hush, manager-kun, or I’ll be doing your PT for the next week.”

“….There, that’s a good smile. Welcome back, Riko.”

“I wasn’t anywhere else, you idiot. Just—thinking.”

“About Kagami?”

“And Kuroko-kun. And Junpei, and Izuki-kun, and Mitobe-kun, all of them. About how none of the first years seem to be able to handle a pass or a lay-up, let alone our passing plays.”

“We’re an aggressive team. That style of play isn’t for everyone, you know that. And it’s only been two practices; it took the last batch a little while to come together, too.”

“That’s not quite right, though. Kuroko-kun and Kagami-kun had a huge effect on our gameplay, and I don’t know if I can—“

“I do. I know you can. And I can tell you just from looking that Hyuuga knows it, too, and that it’s making him nervous that you’re not even trying.”

“Not even--!”

“Riko. You can’t lie to me. You can’t lie to yourself. Please, I’m not being cruel. I can tell you haven’t been satisfied with these practices. The first years might think that it’s because you’re not satisfied with them, but I think I know better.”

“I hate it when you do this to me. Fine! I’ll only say this once, Teppei. Are you listening? Good. Thank you, Teppei, you were right. I was spoiled last year, I guess.”

“I didn’t say that. No matter how innately talented the player, you’re the one who made us the best that we could possibly be. We know that. So how about you show our new members exactly what hard work means, Coach?”

“Jeez, fine. You got me. But I’ll be sure to let the team know who to thank when they’re begging for mercy.”

“Riko, so heartless. I’m new to this, take pity on me.”

“Ha! Not on your life. Now go sit down, I really don’t need you collapsing on me—we've got some intense practices coming up; the club’s going to need their manager.”

**Author's Note:**

> hmu on the [tumblr](http://wecouldbeheroes-loverswecouldbe.tumblr.com/) trash pile if you want to talk some sports anime
> 
> thank you for reading!


End file.
